The present invention relates to a device for sampling feces, by which an approximately constant amount of feces can be sampled and suspended in a liquid to give a preparation for tests in hygienic and simple manner.
Feces are specimens suitable for clinical laboratory tests just as blood and urine specimens used for the tests and offer useful information for diagnosis. Above all, the detection of occult blood in feces is very useful for diagnosis of diseases of digestive organs, in particular, colon cancer, and the detection of occult blood in feces is adopted in mass medical screening and medical checking of elderly subjects. It is now indispensable for the maintenance of health of the people.
As a method for detecting occult blood in feces, chemical method such as guaiac method has been used in the past, while a new method based on the principle of immunological reaction has been developed in recent years. Since this method is superior to chemical method in terms of specificity and sensitivity, the method for detecting occult blood in feces is getting increasingly important. In the detection of occult blood in feces based on immunological measuring method, it is necessary that an approximately constant amount of feces is sampled and suspended in a suitable liquid. In this respect, there are now strong demands on the development of a device for sampling feces, which has the above functions and does not require the use of other devices and which can be used in simple and hygienic manner and has no need to wipe off the attached feces during collecting of the feces.
As a device for sampling feces to attain the above purposes, a conventional type device for sampling feces as shown in FIG. 5 has been known, which comprises a dripping portion 1 at the lower end, a main container 3 with a liquid 2 in it, a cap 4 placed on the main container 3, a collecting stick 5 mounted on the cap 4, a rubber plug 6 fixed in the main container, and a through-hole 7 formed in the rubber plug 6 to accommodate the collecting stick 5 through it, wherein spiral grooves 8 to collect feces are provided at the forward end of the collecting stick 5.
However, in the device for sampling feces as described above, since feces are collected by attaching them on the spiral grooves 8, such drawbacks are found that it is difficult to have feces perfectly stuck in the grooves 8 and furthermore only very small quantity of feces can be stuck in the grooves 8, thus making it difficult to collect an approximately constant amount of feces for the tests. For example, in case feces are stuck perfectly in the grooves and are passed through the rubber plug 6, it is possible to have the feces almost evenly stuck in the grooves. However, because persons collecting feces are unskilled in most cases, the spiral grooves 8 are passed through the rubber plug 6 without perfectly filling the grooves 8 with feces. Thus, even when the grooves are passed through the rubber plug 6, some portions of the grooves 8 are not filled with feces, and the quantity of collected feces varies widely.
Furthermore, colon cancer mostly occurs in sigmoid colon or rectum. Because feces pass through sigmoid colon and rectum after they have been produced, surfaces of feces are covered with blood in the cases of sigmoid colon cancer or rectal cancer. When the conventional type collecting stick 5 to collect feces by sticking it into feces is used, it may not be possible to effectively collect surface portions of feces, and hence in the above case it may not be possible to accurately identify whether occult blood is present in the feces or not.